Intervals

Life works in intervals for me.  For those that don’t know what an interval is as far as cycling is concerned, it is basically a routine in which you combine periods of easy efforts with periods of hard efforts.  The point to them is to push yourself harder than you can maintain for a long effort on these shorter intervals in order to increase your top speed a bit.  I have a hard time with a long steady effort.  I can go really hard for short bursts.  I’m pretty adept at bearing down and honing my focus for minutes (when it comes to an interval on my bike) or weeks (when it comes to intervals in my life).  On the bike I can do multiple hard intervals and recover pretty quickly in between them.  In life, however, it takes me awhile to recover from my hard efforts and I have a hard time getting the next interval started.  One of the most important things I have learned so far in all of the reading I have done since I got my PowerTap is that your training should be set up as a set of intervals.  From your daily training (where you may do 5 – 5 minute hard intervals with 5 minutes of easy spinning in between) to your entire training schedule (where you may plan 5 week cycles where you do 4 hard weeks and then 1 easy week) you need the periods of rest for your body to recover and heal itself from pushing it so far.  That may be why I enjoy teaching, by the way.  We get 10 months of intense work with 2 months to recover.  Unfortunately, this current “rest” period has gone on too long.  Maybe it is the fact that this is the most hectic time of year for me.  Things are wrapping up at school and the kids are getting restless, the club I run has two field trips and a banquet in the span of two weeks, and my job teaching classes online runs at a steady pace with constant deadlines.  Again, I am still doing my best to maintain at least a part of my training schedule.  I am still getting up early 3 to 4 days during the work week to get on the elliptical trainer or run and I am getting in at least 3 good rides a week.  But I am having a hard time getting the diet back on track.  On the bright side, I know I will end this interval soon, I’m just hoping that starting the next “life interval” doesn’t hurt as bad as some of the intervals I do on the bike.

Today’s weigh-in = 247.5

Saturday's Club Ride:  2:11, 34 miles, 60 min. 287 Watts or 2.64 Watts/Kg, 5 min. 385 Watts or 3.53 Watts/Kg, 5 sec. 890 Watts or 8.18 Watts/Kg